First stop was Baw Baw National Park. It’s an easy drive from Melbourne into the southern region of the Victorian Alps, and we dropped in on a completely deserted campsite for a quick overnighter. Took a chance on a track marked 4WD onlyand got lucky… it was a little hairy but nothing most cars can’t handle. Wouldn’t have stood a chance getting out in the wet!

Track to the Aberfeldy River Campground

Dropped in on the old mining town of Walhalla as well… it’s still a popular weekend tourist town it seems, a few stores and an old diesel train keep the place alive. Camping is allowed in a few areas, although we prefer to hit up more remote locations.

Walhalla Train Station - myki readers not yet installed

We went on a short walk to Mushroom Rocks, which proved quite elusive. No idea if we actually saw them or not… didn’t encounter any signs, although there were definitely some nice rocky outcrops.

Enroute to Mushroom Rocks

Next we headed further East, stopping briefly at Lakes Entrance to both reassure ourselves that we didn’t want to stay there and also to do a quick map check for some nearby free camping. We found a great little spot at the mouth of Lake Tyers with free camping in a state forest. No toilet facilities, but a great view of the sun setting over the water and again barely anyone else around.

Lake Tyers

Day 3 – we were pretty excited about getting to Croajingalong National Park, as we planned on having a few nights there instead of having to pack up the tent every morning. What a beautiful place! Apparently it’s so popular after Christmas that you have to enter a ballot to get a campsite, but once again we hit the jackpot and there was barely another soul around. The Wingan Inletcampground gave us access to a few decent sized walks, as well as a stunning beach and the inlet itself.

Boardwalk leading from the campground to the beach

Some crazy purple things we found - anyone?

Strollin' at the beach

View of the beach from Rame Head

This friendly guy dropped in at the campsite for a chat

Next stop was Bermagui, where my cousin and her husband have recently made a sea-change from Sydney. Kicking around eating and drinking was all we got up to there, which suited us fine…

We spent about 4 nights in Batemans Bay over Christmas, Mum recently purchased a massive house down there to fit the whole family in. More relaxing, drinking, swimming and chillin’ with the family… good times!

New Years was spent in Canberra with my brothers family.. we walked down to the Lake for the 9pm fireworks… unfortunately the fireworks were set off in the City… whoops. Plenty of people made the same mistake and swiftly rotated their folding chairs to a new bearing.

Oh yeah… the 2nd of Jan was my 30th birthday!! Organised a shindig at my brothers place to get everyone together, surprising how many Melbourne peeps happened to be in town as well. Party was cranking… largely thanks to Tommo and Juz spinning tunes, and the AWESOME present given to me by my lovely lady… check this shniz out: It’s a programmable colour laser… like a smaller version of what you see in night clubs. It’s completely off the hook, fill a room with smoke (using a smoke machine, not a bag of weed of course)… and you’ve got yourself an instant party!

We hung around in Canberra for a wedding on the 7th Jan, and had planned on returning to Melbourne over 2 days with another night of camping, however we both fell violently ill on Sunday morning and had to stay in bed all day. This meant that the dreaded Hume Highway was the logical choice for the drive home on Monday, which wasn’t as bad as I remember it, partly thanks to all the bypasses, and partly thanks to the audiobook we were listening to.

Back in sunny shitty Melbourne now… although we’ve managed to plan another escape to Trentham to visit some friends on Friday night. Happy New Years everyone!